Mexico’s Televisa reports 1st-qtr boost in profit on Univision fusion
By Cassandra Garrison
(Reuters) -Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest broadcaster, on Tuesday posted a giant leap in first quarter web revenue versus a loss in the identical interval a yr earlier, boosted by discontinued operations associated to its content material merger with Univision.
The corporate’s web revenue from January to March reached 52.6 billion pesos ($2.65 billion) in comparison with a lack of 584 million pesos in the identical interval in 2021.
The corporate, for years the world’s largest producer of Spanish-language video content material, noticed its income enhance 3.3% from the year-earlier interval to complete 18.6 billion pesos, in line with a press release filed with the Mexican inventory alternate.
Televisa accomplished its fusion with Univision on July 31 to create TelevisaUnivision, a brand new agency that mixes content material from each broadcasters.
The corporate’s cable section posted gross sales progress of 1.1% with the addition of 336,000 income producing models (RGUs) and utilization progress of three.0%.
Gross sales for satellite tv for pc tv service SKY, nonetheless, fell 6.2% whereas utilization fell 13.6%, Televisa stated. There have been 175,000 disconnections within the quarter.
Native consultancy Monex stated Televisa’s outcomes had been “constructive” and that it noticed a rise in progress expectations for this yr.
The transaction to create TelevisaUnivision “might suggest a higher capability for the technology of future flows, in addition to a decrease degree of leverage,” Monex stated in a be aware.
TelevisaUnivision launched a free ad-based model of its new streaming platform ViX in March, which can compete with established rivals like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video.
The subscription-based tier, ViX Plus, is because of launch within the second half of the yr.
($1 = 19.8911 pesos by end-March)
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison, Carolina Pulice and Noe Torres; Modifying by Sandra Maler)
